Kohli powers India to ODI series win

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COLOMBO: Virat Kohli cracked a century and part-timer Manoj Tiwary bagged four wickets as India posted a comfortable six-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the fourth One-day International on Tuesday.
Kohli, who also scored a hundred in the opening game, made a 119-ball 128 not out as India surpassed Sri Lanka’s total of 251-8 with more than seven overs to spare for an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.

Tiwary earlier played a key role in restricting Sri Lanka in the day-night match in Colombo, taking four wickets with his leg-spin in his first game of the series.

Kohli, who hit one six and 12 fours, completed his 13th one-day century with an aggressive shot when he pulled fast bowler Lasith Malinga for a boundary.

India were under pressure at 109-4 before Kohli and Suresh Raina (58 not out) added 146 runs to steer their team home.

Raina hit one six and four boundaries in his 51-ball knock.
Opener Upul Tharanga (51), Lahiru Thirimanne (47) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (42) were the main scorers for Sri Lanka, who were 152-2 in the 32nd over.

Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took two wickets and part-time spinner Virender Sehwag one.

Sri Lanka made an impressive start after electing to bat, with Tharanga and Dilshan adding 91 for the opening wicket.

Fast bowler Ashok Dinda broke the stand when he removed Dilshan, who was caught behind after cracking seven fours in his 48-ball knock.

Tharanga, who pulled Dinda for the first six of the match, fell soon after completing his half-century, stumped by skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni off Ashwin. He also hit four boundaries in his 73-ball knock.

Dinesh Chandimal (28) and Thirimanne put on 50 for the third wicket before Tiwary struck in his opening over, having Chandimal caught by Irfan Pathan at square-leg.

Off-spinner Sehwag got a big wicket when he had Jayawardene caught behind for three to reduce Sri Lanka to 155-4.

Sri Lanka made two changes from the side that lost the last match by five wickets, bringing in Thirimanne and Pradeep in place of injured Kumar Sangakkara and Isuru Udana.

India replaced leg-spinner Rahul Sharma with Tiwary.

Sri Lanka crush India by 9 wickets in Second ODI

Sri Lanka 139 for 1 (Tharanga 59*, Dilshan 50) beat India 138 (Gambhir 65, Perera 3-19, Mathews 3-14) by nine wickets>>>>>>>>>>>>

Sri Lanka completed an easy 9-wicket win to level the ODI Series 1-1 before leaving to Colombo. India couldn’t put up any sort of fight with the ball as the Lankans eased to the target of 139 in just 19.5 overs without playing any real big shots. Upul Tharanga stayed unbeaten on 59* from 60 balls with 8 fours.
His opening partner Tillakaratne Dilshan got out after scoring 50 from 49 balls with 5 fours. Dilshan was caught by the Keeper Dhoni when he dragged a slog sweep off R Ashwin onto the body and lobbed up in the air.

Ashwin was the only bowler to get any sort of respect with figures of 5-1-18-1. The Lankans took just 10.5 overs after the supper break to knock off the remaining 75 runs! The Player of the Match award went to Thisara Perera for his destructive spell at the start of the Indian innings.

Tharanga cracked eight fours in his 60-ball knock while Dilshan, who was dropped early in his innings by Virender Sehwag in the slips off seamer Irfan Pathan, hit five boundaries.

The Indian bowlers failed to keep pressure on the Sri Lankan openers, with fast bowlers Zaheer Khan and Pathan conceding 13 runs in wides.

India were earlier let down by their batsmen, with opener Gautam Gambhir alone defying the Sri Lankan attack with a 96-ball 65. He was the last man out, caught behind off paceman Lasith Malinga (2-36) after hitting four boundaries.

Ravichandran Ashwin (21), opener Sehwag (15) and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (11) were the others to reach double-figures in a dismal Indian batting performance.

The Sri Lankan pacemen were backed by wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara, who held four catches.

Perera jolted India when he took three wickets, including those of the previous match's main scorers Sehwag and Virat Kohli (one), in his opening three overs without conceding a run.

Kohli had made an impressive 106 and Sehwag a brisk 96 in India's victory in the opening match on Saturday.

Perera struck in his first over when he held a superb return catch to dismiss Sehwag and then had Kohli caught behind to put pressure on India.

Mathews reduced India to 38-3 when he bowled Rohit Sharma for no score before Perera removed Suresh Raina (one) for his third wicket.

India retained the side which won the first match while Sri Lanka replaced injured paceman Nuwan Kulasekara with debutant seamer Isuru Udana.

The third one-day international will be played in Colombo on Saturday.